This is a fanfiction, and as such, most of the characters in the story are not mine. Most characters are © Sega, and are not used with permission.
Chapter 4: Homecoming
When Yohan first entered the town, most people simply moved out of the way; but when they realized that it was Yohan who was coming down the road, they started to collect around the vehicle. With the increased pedestrian traffic, the truck would not get very far, so it stopped just inside the first few buildings.
Yohan got out of the driver's door and was immediately surrounded by his people.
"Welcome home."
"How was your journey?"
"Did you get to Mobotropolis?"
"What's it like?"
Yohan had to flag everyone down to get a word in edgewise. "Yes, yes; thank you. I'll tell you all about it over supper. And I also have some news."
It was at this point that Shadow emerged from the passenger's side. He had debated when would be the best time to appear, and figured now was as good a time as any; he didn't want to look stupid just sitting in the truck, and it was better to get this over with.
When he stepped out, people started to pay attention to him.
"Is that Sonic?"
"Yohan actually found him."
"I thought he was blue?"
Yohan called everyone to him to properly introduce the visitor. "When I had reached Mobotropolis and met with Queen Sally, she had told me some distressing news; Sonic died in the war with Robotnik."
This drew noise from the crowd.
"She told me that the vile doctor was beaten by another who had taken his place, Sonic's brother, Shadow."
Yohan pointed his arm in Shadow's direction.
"Hi."
This drew more chatter from the crowd, Yohan requested silence again.
"I have some important news. On the way back from Mobotropolis, we passed through Vannannen, and it was completely destroyed. There were no survivors."
Gasps and cries came from the crowd, unbelieving what they heard. Some were stunned, unable to even consider the disaster. One woman broke down in tears; she was from Vannannen and moved to Lalberdean when she married, but most of her family was still in Vannannen.
"It can't be destroyed."
"Was it the dragons who did this?"
"I'm afraid it's true." Yohan continued. "After we left, we came upon Mr. Binhelm, he was caught by the tail end of the attack; his truck was destroyed and he was stranded on the road."
It was now that everyone noticed the merchant standing behind Shadow. The crowd was getting louder with its questions for the three; Shadow was feeling boxed in by the crowd. Yohan saw how unruly people were becoming.
"Please, everyone calm down. I know you have a lot of questions, but this isn't the place for discussing it; Shadow and I have been on the road for some time and need a chance to rest up. We can discuss this properly after supper."
Slowly the crowd dispersed, some people were still shocked at hearing the news of Vannannen's destruction and seemed to crawl away. A few of the people weren't satisfied with waiting and tried to get in a few questions with Yohan, Shadow and Milon as they tried to unpack their stuff from the truck. Although Shadow would've preferred to have no questions right now, he was able to get a few of the villagers to carry his trunk that had his stock of Power Rings in it. Shadow didn't know if he had enough, or nowhere near enough, but he figured he'd need them one way or the other. There were Power Rings on the mountains, but considering the climate up here, he didn't want to be out collecting them.
For the first time in two weeks, Yohan walked through the entrance of his home. It was a large two storey stone house; Yohan and his family lived on the top half of the house, and went up a large set of stairs to reach the front door.
"Karma! I'm home!"
From another room, another bear came running in; a large tan bear, not as big as Yohan, but almost.
"Oh darling, I'm am so glad you're home."
The two shared a big hug right there in the porch. After breaking off, Carmelita looked over to see Yohan's guest.
"Is this Sonic the Hedgehog?"
"No, this is his brother, Shadow."
"Oh. Welcome to our home, Shadow; I am honored that you have come."
"Thank you."
From around the house, Shadow could make out more noises as two others approached.
"Daddy!"
Two more bears, both around Shadow's size though one clearly larger than the other came out and hugged their father.
"Marcy, Brian, it's good to see you again." Yohan stood up again. "This is Shadow, he came to help us."
The larger of the two looked at the black one. "I thought you said his name was 'Sonic'?"
"Sonic was my brother, he's… no longer with us." Shadow's hesitation made it sound like he missed his 'brother', but he really just didn't like the idea of everyone thinking the two hedgehogs were related, even though he was actually a clone of the blue one.
Yohan turned to his wife. "Would you look after Shadow, I have to arrange something for Mr. Binhelm. He had a run in with a dragon and got stranded just outside of Vannannen."
Yohan sighed. "It was destroyed, Vannannen is gone."
"What? It's gone?"
"I'll be back in a few minutes and we can talk more then, but it was totally destroyed."
"What no, tell me know."
"It can wait dear; you see to Shadow, I'll be back shortly."
Yohan almost wished he had said nothing about it, but he had to tell her, she was his wife afterall. He moved past Shadow and went out the door, leaving the hedgehog with his family.
"I hope your trip went well."
"Well enough."
Carmelita took Shadow's coat and hung it up in the porch; the hedgehog kept the rest of his clothes on, despite that the house was pretty warm and he normally didn't wear such things.
"We have a room set aside for you; Marcy, Brian, help me with his trunk."
"That's kind of heavy."
Carmelita giggled. "You don't live in these mountains without being good and strong."
The three bears were able to lift the trunk with little trouble while Shadow followed them into the guest room with his duffel bag.
"I hope you like this room."
The room was rather plain, but it did its job of being a room rather well. Inside was a fair sized bed, much larger than Shadow would need by himself, but not as large as the huge one he had at home, which was barely big enough considering the occupancy. There was also a bureau with a mirror, with several large shelves in it for storing several changes of clothes, a rather simple shape with no ornate edges or decorations, just a simple box shape with a dark varnish.
Carmelita moved over to a closet and opened it. Inside, the shelves were half filled with linens and towels.
"We just store our extra towels and stuff here, just take what you need when you shower. Come, I'll show you the rest of the house."
Shadow left his duffel bag on the bed while the trunk of Rings was left at the end of the bed.
Karma showed him around the top floor of the house; a wall divided the house in two halves, a front half and a back half. The bedrooms were in the back of the house, as was the bathroom, which was connected to both the hallway and the master bedroom. The front half of the house was wide open; to one side was a living room, a rather simply furnished room with chairs and a small table, and the far wall was decorated with a brick fireplace. The other side of the house had a small kitchen, enough to seat the family, but it lacked a lot of room to store food. In between was an opening with a table laid out, a rather nice table in opposition to the mostly plain look of the rest of the house; a dining room, for special occasions. The porch and front door were between the living room and the dining room, with a broom closet between the porch and dining room; a small wall partially segmented the dining room and kitchen.
"You have a nice place here."
"Thank you, it's probably nothing compared to what you have in Mobotropolis."
Shadow thought about that; it really didn't compare to the house he had, but that was a reward for his services. Most of the homes in the city weren't as big as his, though probably bigger than this.
"Not by much." Shadow pointed to the kitchen. "You don't really have a big kitchen, it doesn't look suitable for a family of four."
"Oh, no; the kitchen is for small meals and such, or for preparing special meals for guests. We normally eat in the mess hall."
Shadow thought back to his few months in Knothole; it too was small and most everyone ate in a cafeteria like place. Bunnie had a small kitchenette set up in her hut and cooked for herself, often inviting Shadow over.
"So when's supper hour?"
"It should be another hour or so."
"I want to ask, Yohan said you had three children, only two are here."
"Our oldest, Kirkigard. He's all grown up and on his own. He has a place on the east side of the village. He works as a guardian and is on duty now. You'll meet him later."
At the front door, Yohan entered again.
"I'm home."
Yohan placed his outerwear on the hooks in the porch and came into the kitchen where the others were.
"Mr. Binhelm's put up with the Dorneys, he'll be borrowing a truck to get down the mountain tomorrow morning."
Karma looked at him, she didn't really care about the merchant, she wanted to know about Vannannen. A fact that was not lost on her husband.
"Vannannen was completely destroyed, laid to total ruin." Yohan paused. "We searched for hours, but found nothing but rubble and charred remains."
"Did you recognize anyone?"
"No, they were all burned so badly, there was no one I recognized; they were like lumps of ash from a campfire."
Shadow remembered his own experience at the site, the burned woman with the frozen child. He froze when her body crumbled at his touch, revealing the dead baby, crying tears of ice for all eternity. Shadow decided against bringing it up.
Shadow was talking to Yohan and his family about Mobotropolis, and everything that happened since he joined the fight against Robotnik; of course, Shadow had to alter a few things to hide his real story.
In turn, Yohan and Karma told him more about the Hoines Mountains and the people who lived there. They also talked a bit about their family and how they met, which naturally led to Shadow's family, and on to questions about his two girlfriends.
After almost two hours, a loud bell was heard outside.
"That's the supper bell."
The lot of them got up and headed towards the door, Shadow remembered what Karma told him about the mess hall.
Yohan led his family and Shadow towards a large building in the center of the village, inside the large stone building was an equally large room with long wooden tables and benches on both sides. In the back was a long row of tables manned by several people who handed out food. He brought his group to the starting end and each took a tray and large plate. As they walked down the long row that separated the dining area from the kitchen in back, they picked up various bits of food, handed to them by the assistants manning the tables.
Shadow first took a small bowl of salad instead of a few pieces of toast, then a large piece of steak was placed on his plate; and as a side dish, Shadow took some mashed potatoes. At the end, he took a glass of some kind of juice that Yohan had suggested, then added some butter on his potatoes, finishing up the meal with a set of silver cutlery.
When Shadow reached the table that Yohan had led them too, he laid his tray down, and took a quick glance around the room. Shadow could feel the eyes of the villagers around him, they were all very tense since hearing about Vannannen's demise; they wanted answers, not only about the destroyed village, but about Shadow as well. Shadow tried to ignore them, this was the first real meal he had in almost a week, and he wanted to enjoy it. He ate some of the garden salad, the vegetables were nice and fresh, but it could've used some dressing, something tangy but not spicy.
Picking up his knife, he cut a piece of the meat and put it in his mouth; the taste hit his taste buds instantly. It was prepared with a host of spices like a peppercorn or teriyaki style steak, but definitely neither; it was very tasty and he enjoyed chewing it in his mouth, which was good since it was also rather stringy. After a while he was able to sufficiently mash the resilient meat enough to swallow. Looking down at the steak, he wondered if he would be able to digest the whole thing.
He then dipped into the potatoes; they were whipped a bit too much for his liking, but it was soft and a lot easier to eat than either the salad or the steak. He took a sip from the glass, and tasted the odd mix of flavors; he wasn't sure what they were, but some strange concoction of grape juice, cranberry juice, and something else that he couldn't quite distinguish.
Karma glanced over to their guest. "How do you find it?"
"It's pretty good, I prefer mashed potatoes over whipped though. The steak is really good; it's sort of like the peppercorn steaks at home, but it's a little tough and stringy. What is it?"
"It's dragon meat."
Shadow froze at hearing that; the large beasts that terrorized the mountainside, wiping out villages and killing the people, were apparently not the only predators around here.
"No wonder you're being attacked by these things."
"We didn't eat dragons before, but after they starting attacking it was hard to get supplies in and out, and food was becoming scarce. After we first killed a dragon, we cut it up for food, and used its bones like timber. One dragon provided enough meat for the village for a few days."
"Days?" Shadow looked around at the people who were sitting down for supper; there were many gathered here, and this was apparently not everyone. Some like their son Kirkigard were on guard duty, and fed on a different schedule from the miners. Shadow tried to fathom just how much meat that was.
"How big are these dragons?"
After supper, Yohan moved to the side of the room where a small table was set up perpendicular to the eating tables.
"Everyone, if I may have your attention! I know that you have a lot of questions, particularly about Shadow and Vannannen. Now that you're all here, I can tell you what happened."
Yohan obviously glazed over the fact that there were some people missing, but that was taken for granted. The village chief went through the details of his trip; the rather boring, uneventful ride down the mountain, and reaching Mobotropolis, a truly grand city compared to the small villages. He talked about Queen Sally and her hospitality, and briefly mentioned hers and Sonic's son, Comet. After that he talked about Shadow, avoiding the topic of Rouge and Bunnie, preferring to call them his biggest fans as opposed to girlfriends.
Then came the trip back, nothing worth noting until the pair reached Vannannen. He talked about the hours they spent searching the charred rubble for any survivors, before eventually setting up camp for the night just outside the ghost town. Shortly after, they met Milon Binhelm, stranded on the road; taking some of his supplies, they made their way back to Lalberdean.
After Yohan's dissertation, it was Shadow's turn to address the people, and answer any questions they had about the hero from Mobotropolis.
Shadow started by talking about his history with Sonic, a story that Shadow had to make up on the spot. To keep it real enough, he simply altered bits of the past that Void created for him. He made up a quick story of leaving home, finding a Chaos Emerald, then returning later when Sonic died, and took his place. Then came the event with the echidnas and the Master Emerald, skipping the part about Void, and ending with the attack on Robotropolis and the defeat of Dr. Robotnik. After that came questions about the Chaos and Master Emeralds, requiring an explanation from Shadow about their power; the hedgehog told them of how he had consumed the Emeralds' energy to accomplish his goals, but he still had some of their power.
There was still much doubt that Shadow would be of much help, and Shadow was not one for confidence boosting pep talks; but he did promise Yohan that he'd help, and wasn't going home until he did all he could.
After another hour, the meeting came to a close, though it would be another half hour before everyone had left for home. Carmelita had taken the kids home once supper was over while Shadow stayed with Yohan and talked with some of the villagers. After they had finally left, Shadow brought up a nagging question.
"Yohan, over supper your wife mentioned that we were eating dragon meat, and gave a brief hint as to how large they are. How big are these dragons?"
The bear stopped walking and hesitated. "It's getting late, but I can show you."
Yohan led Shadow to a large structure about the size and shape of a barn, even though no farming was done here.
"Mac! You in there?!"
After a minute, a small door in the large double doors opened. In the frame stood a large badger, almost the same size as Yohan.
"Yohan, what are ye doin' trollin' around at night?"
"We were heading home and I wanted to show Shadow the dragon."
"Do ye now?" Mac noticed the hedgehog. "Hey there."
"Hi."
"This is Mackenzie, he's the blacksmith and maintains the barn. I know there's no farm here, we just call it a 'barn'."
"I noticed."
Mac led the bear and hedgehog inside.
"It's in back."
The barn was so big, that it also doubled as a garage; several vehicles of different sizes were parked inside, closest to the massive double doors. The three weaved between the boxes and supplies to a place in the back. The reserved space was pretty large, easily big enough to take the truck they drove down in. Propped up on the wall were long curved shafts of a dull white rock; it didn't take long to determine that this was not stone, these were bones, ribs of the dead beast. Even longer than those were other thinner rods of the same material hanging from the ceiling, the slender rods that stretched the wings of the beast. And there, between some boxes that were overflowing with smaller pieces of the dull white minerals, a large horrendous shape, mostly intact and complete, larger than life itself, the skull.
Shadow looked upon the massive skull, the jaw was big enough that it could take his whole head and possibly his whole body in one bite. The teeth were like short daggers, incredibly sharp and shiny; though half of them were missing, Shadow could picture how the bony head would look with the whole set. Two long twisted poles of bone ripped out from the sides and curled forward, narrowed to a point on one side, the other also narrowed but was broken off long before the sharp end.
"Bloody Hell…"
